KASHMIR - THE
HOME OF SANSKRIT LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

P. N. K
Bamzai

The
most outstanding contribution of Kashmir to the rich and varied cultural
heritage of India has been the development and spread of the Sanskrit language
and literature. Besides, it was through this medium that humanities, philosophy,
religion, medicine, history, law and polity, in which Kashmiris made a
mark, were propagated not only in the rest of India, but in Central and
Southeast Asia too. With the development of Mahayan through the efforts
of Kashmiri Brahmans under the rule of Asoka and Kaniska, Kashmiri Buddhist
monks, missionaries and philosophers travelled in their hundreds over China,
Korea, Japan and Tibet to propagate Mahayan Buddhism and Indian culture
among nearly half the population of the world.

It is not possible
to pierce the veil of time to trace the origin of this ancient language.
However the word Aryan which appears in the Vedas perhaps gives a clue.
The term Vedas embraces a body of writings the origin of which is ascribed
to divine revelation and surpass in antiquity every other literary document
belonging to the Aryans.

How and when
Kashmir became the centre of Sanskrit learning may be traced to the Aryans
settled for ages on the banks of the mighty Vedic river Saraswati in the
Punjab which branched off to Rajasthan and Saurashtra. With Sanskrit as
their mother-tongue their society comprised the four Varnas or Castes -
Brahman, Khashtriya, Vaisas and Sudras.

About five
thousand years ago the mighty Saraswati changed its course and finally
dried up. The Aryan settlements on its banks got dispersed to different
regions of India. One enterprising batch under the leadership of the Brahmans
went to nearby Kashmir and sought shelter from the Naga ruler of Kashmir
who allowed them to settle in the delectable Valley on condition they adopted
some of the festivals and usages of the Nagas.

Carrying with
them Sanskrit, the repository of their cultural heritage, they passionately
devoted themselves to its study, enriching it further through the writings
of poets, dramatists and Vedic philosophers. Sanskrit became the language
of religion and polite literature and in the words of Bilhana who lived
as late as the 9th century A.D., even women in Kashmir spoke Sanskrit fluently.

Kashmiri Pandits
took pains "in keeping the Sanskrit language pure and perfect." The Brahmanical
religion finds its practical expression in sacrificial performance. And
the sacred obligation incumbent on the Brahmans of rendering correctly
the letter and sense of their Vedic texts necessarily involved a good deal
of serious grammatical and etymological study.

They believed
that grammar was the only instrument which could take care of adhering
to these texts and holding the entire Sanskrit language and literature
in their firm grip.

Hence Panini's
monumental work on Sanskrit grammar, the Ashtadhyayi became the object
of their special study. This great work marks the culminating point of
grammatical research and besides treats chiefly the post-Vedic or classical
speech. Ashtadhyayi came ultimately to be looked upon as the representative
of grammatical science, and has ever since remained the standard authority
for Sanskrit grammar. For comprehensive grasp of linguistic facts, and
a penetrating insight into the structure of the language, this work stands
probably unrivalled in the literature of any nation.

An equally
important contribution to Sanskrit grammar was Mahabhasya, a commentary
written in the second century B. C. by a Kashmiri grammarian Patanjali.
According to the Kashmiri tradition upheld by several scholars, he was
born in the village of Godra in the South of the Valley.

The Mahabhasya
too has been commented upon by Kayatta in his Bhasyapradipa.

That Kashmiris
were keen to remain masters of Sanskrit grammar is shown by the number
of works authored by them on this subject. Candracarya for instance founded
through his work Candra-Vyakarna, a school of Sanskrit grammar called Candra,
second in importance to that of Panini.

Another commentary
on Panini's work, Kasikavriti, written jointly by Jayadata and Vamana,
two Brahman grammarians, has been mentioned by I-tsing in the seventh century
A.D.

Kalhana refers
to the study of Patanjali's grammatical work Mahabhasaya under Jayapida
towards the end of the eighth century A.D. His teacher in grammar, Kshiraswamin,
wrote his well-known commentary on Dhatupatha or the study of verbs. That
Kshiraswamin was a Kashmiri Pandit is proved by a passage in the Vamastuty
appended by Rajanaka Ananda to his commentary on Naisadcarita, where he
is claimed to be one of the great scholars produced by the Rajanaka family
of Kashmir.

In PROSODY
and METRICS Kashmiri authors have made valuable contribution to Sanskrit
language and literature. Pinglacarya, the author of the well-known work
on METRICS, Pingala, was a Kashmiri and so was KEDARA BHATTA who wrote
Vrittaratnakara, used widely after Pingala. Tradition makes the Chhanda-Sutra
of Pingala, the starting point of Prosody. Another work on Metrics was
Suvritta-tilaka of the well-known Kashmiri author, Kshemendra. Mamatta,
his later contemporary, wrote a book entitled Savdavyaparacaraca. In the
field of LEXICOGRAPHY also Kashmiri Pandits' contribution is considerable.
The Anekarthakosa of Mankha is of special importance and is an improvement
Amarasimha.

ALANKARA
SASTRA OR POETICS

Both according
to their own account and according to the admission of the learned in India,
the Kashmiri Pandits were formerly as distinguished in the 'Alankara-Sastra',
or poetics, as in poetry and produced a long series of writers on this
subject.

There is nothing
surprising about it for, in a beautiful valley like Kashmir, the account
must necessarily have been on the pursuit of beauty in all its aspects.
The Kashmirian writers did not only develop some of the earlier schools
of poetics that were born in other parts of India such as a Rasa, Alankara,
Riti, Vakroti and Aucatya but made original contribution to this art with
their theory of Dhvani.

The first propounder
of this theory was Anandavardhana who in his Dhvanyaloka asserts that it
is Dhvani that is the soul of poetry. According to Kane, "the Dhvanyaloka
is an epoch-making work in the history of Alankara literature. It occupies
the same position in poetics as Panini's Ashadhyayi in grammar and Sankracarya's
commentary on Vedanta".

Anandavardhana's
literary activity falls within the years 860-890 AD, which almost coincides
with the reign of King Avantivarman. It may well be described as the most
prosperous age in the political and cultural history of ancient Kashmir.
It was in this atmosphere of creative endeavour when sculpture, music,
architecture and poetry reached new heights, that Anandavardhana found
the inspiration for his epoch-making theory. His works reveal the vast
range of his studies. His interests were varied - poetry, drama, philosophy,
theology, ancient lore, Buddhist classics, he was equally familiar with
them all.

Anandavardhana's
masterpiece, Dhvanyalok or the "Light of suggestion" marks the beginning
of a new age in aesthetics. During the hundred years between his exposition
of the theory and its final establishment by Abhinavagupta, writers on
aesthetics continued to devote their attention to it. Inspite of the geographical
isolation of Kashmir, the theory was quickly noted by scholarly circles
all over India, and we hardly come across any important writer on aesthetics
who could ignore it.

The first among
the Kashmiri successors of Anandavardhana in aesthetics proper was Mukla
Bhatta. Apart from other problems, his book on Dhvani contains a discussion
on the use of words in their various primary and secondary senses, a branch
of speculation that has today come in for a good deal of emphasis at the
hands of European writers on "Semantics".

ABHINAVAGUPTA

It was, however,
Abhinavagupta, the famous poet, critic, philosopher and saint of Kashmir
who wrote profusely on aesthetics. Like a drama moving to its climax, aesthetic
thought in Kashmir moved to its highest pitch in the writings of Abhinavagupta,
undoubtedly the greatest figure in the history of Indian aesthetics.

In a family
full of traditions of scholarship, Abhinavagupta was born some time between
950 and 960 A.D. In his childhood he faced a calamity in the death of his
mother and then renunciation of this world by his father. But being gifted
with a strong will, he pursued studies with uncommon zeal.

Then began
his own creative activity. He studied all the Tantric texts from the point
of view of Kashmir Saivism and the result of his labours was his famous
work, Tantraloka. In his second phase he made a study of all the schools
of poetics and produced his famous work on aesthetics, Abhinavabharati
and Locana a commentary on Anandavardhana's Dhvanyaloka. In the third and
final phase he was drawn towards metaphysical problems and made his own
important formulations which raised Kashmir Saiva philosophy to its highest
level and secured for it a permanent place in the history of human thought.

Apart from
this, his own contribution is the enunciation of Shanta Rasa, the mood
of serenity and peace, as the ultimate end of art. In his own words, "all
emotions, when their exciting conditions are present, emerge from Shanta,
and when these conditions are withdrawn they again merge into Shanta".

HIS SUCCESSORS

Mamattacarya,
his disciple also made considerable contribution to poetics. He took his
early education at Banaras. His famous Kavyapraksa possesses such merit
that it has been commented upon by more than seventy ancient and modern
scholars. It covers the whole ground of rhetoric, deals with the merits
and demerits of poetry, the functions of different words and their sources
and the figures of speech.

The tenth chapter
of his Kavyaprakasa has been continued by his pupil Manikyacandra. He has
written the first and most reliable commentary on Kavyaprakasa. Rajanaka
Kuyaka, who lived in the twelfth century A.D. wrote among several books
Alankarasavasav and summarised the views of the early writers.

This does not,
however, exhaust the list of Kashmirian writers on poetics which would
run into hundreds. It is obvious that the whole literature of Sanskrit
poetics has been permeated by their contributions of original works in
this field.

POETRY AND
PROSE

Kashmiri writers
have produced a galaxy of poets and dramatists in Sanskrit. Influenced
by the natural beauty of their homeland, its lofty mountains, lakes, waterfalls
and charming flowers of multitudinous colours, they wrote dramas, epics,
lyrical as well as dialectical poems, essays, fiction and anthologies.

It would not
be out of place here to say that writers on Poetics and Saiva and other
philosophical schools wrote both in prose and verse. Although poetry is
more closely related to music than to any of the other arts, yet the power
over verbal melody at its very highest is so self-satisfying that absolute
music becomes a superfluity. This is a common feature of all the Sanskrit
writers in Kashmir who have attained such mastery over prose and poetry
as to achieve this rarest miracle of art.

It is indeed
a pity that Sanskrit compositions of Kashmirian poets and authors prior
to the sixth century A.D. have not been so far discovered. The Rajatarangini
mentions a number of poets and dramatists who flourished long before the
beginning of the Christian era.

One, named
Chandaka is said to have been a great poet. Kalhana records that he flourished
in the reign of Tunjina (C-319 A.D.) and his plays attracted large audiences.

Another poet
mentioned by Kalhana is Bharatrmenth who was honoured by Matrigupta, himself
a poet, for writing the famous poem Hayagrivavadha by "placing below the
volume a golden dish, lest its flavour might escape". This famous poem
is lost but is mentioned by Kshemendra and by Mankha in Srikanthacarita.
The latter places him by the side of Subhandu and Banal

That Matrigupta
who ruled Kashmir for some time as the nominee of Vikramaditya of Ujjain
was a poet and a historical character is proved by his commentary on Bharata's
Natyasastra which is referred to in Sundarasimha's Natyapradipa.

It would fill
a volume to even record the names of writers in Sanskrit after the sixth
century A.D. To mention the names of a few outstanding writers would suffice
to bring out the deep interest in literary activities of Kashmiri Brahmans.

The first name
would be of Damodargupta a famous poet and moralist and the chief councilor
of Jayapida. Most of his poetical compositions are lost, but he is quoted
in several anthologies.

King Jayapida
was also the patron of Bhatta Udbhatta, his court poet known chiefly for
his writings on aesthetics. He also wrote the poem Kumarasambhava.

Kalhana mentions
the names of Manoratha, Sankhdatta, Cataka and Samdhimat who also flourished
at his court.

Another famous
poet of the eighth century A.D. was Sankuka who composed a historical poem
depicting the fierce battle between Mamma and Utpala, the maternal uncles
of Cipatta Jayapida.

Some of the
Karkota Kings were poets themselves. We find fragments of poems written
by Muktapida and Jayapida preserved in Subhasitavali.

Against the
background of royal patronage and deep interest in literary activities
of Kashmiri Brahmans, it is not difficult to believe Bilhana's remark that
"in Kashmir poetry grew as luxuriantly as Kumkum (Saffron)".

Having achieved
a high distinction in Sanskrit language and literature, some of the poets
and writers made a mark in the rest of India where they were welcomed with
honour, For instance BILHANA who left Kashmir in the reign of Kalasa (1063-89)
rose to great prominence at the "court of the Calukya King Parmadi Vikramaditya
Tribhavanmala who appointed him as the chief pandit and when travelling
on elephants through the hill country of Karnataka, his parasol was borne
aloft before the King". He has immortalised his patron in his Vikramankadeva
Carita which is perhaps one of the first Sanskrit poems having a historical
approach.

MANKHA the
renowned poet who served under Jayasimha is known by his poem Srikanthacarita
written between the years 1135 and 1145 A.D.. The subject of the poem is
the Puranic legend of Siva's overthrow of Tripura. When he completed the
poem he put it before an assembly of thirty contemporary scholars, poets
and officials where it was publicly read. The list of poets and scholars
given by Mankha shows that Kashmir of twelfth century continued to be a
centre of Sanskrit learning.

KSHEMENDRA
- FATHER OF SOCIAL SATIRE

Kshemendra's
contribution to Sanskrit literature is unique in one respect. He introduces
social satire, mixed with humour and sarcasm. His Samayamatrika is a poem
of eight chapters narrating the story of the wanderings of a courtesan
in the Valley. It is an interesting specimen of satire rarely found in
Sanskrit literature, on strolling musicians, women beggars, shopgirls,
saints, thieves and other classes of people. His kalavilasa depics various
occupations and follies of the people of the time, such as physicians,
traders, astrologers, goldsmiths, harlots and saints. His Darpadalama condemns
pride which is said to spring from birth in a good and rich family, wealth,
learning, beauty, valour, charity and asceticism.

Kshmendra's
Desopadesa exposes all kinds of sham in society through the caricatures
of the life of various depraved sections of the community, such as cheats,
misers, prostitutes, bawds, voluptuaries, students from Gauda (Bengal),
old men married to young girls, degraded Saiva Gurus, etc.

Sanskrit poetry
continued to flourish in Kashmir even in the thirteen century, Jonaraja
mentions a poet Saka who flourished at the court of Samgramadeva (A.D.
1235-52).

The deep religions
tendency among Kashmiris inspired them to write devotional songs. Some
of the famous poems of this category are Vakratipancasika of Ratnakara,
Devisataka of Anandavardhana, Stutravali of Utpala, Sivamahimah of Pushpadanta
and Stutikusmanjali of Jagadhar Bhatta.

FABLE LITERATURE

Kashmir has
a long tradition of story - telling that goes back to dim antiquity. One
may speculate as to why such a tradition should have developed in the Valley
to an almost incredible extent. Is it because a peaceful atmosphere and
secluded existence encouraged talent in this direction? Was this talent
further strengthened by the long winter months of inactivity, with men
having the leisure to weave fact and fancy together?

Whatever the
reason might be, many of the world's best-known tales have originated in
Kashmir. Apart from Gunadhya's legendary Brihatkatha, which is no longer
extant, and

SOMADEVA's
Kathasaritasagara, many other collections of stories were produced.

Written in
flowing narrative style which makes delightful reading, Kathasaritasagara
has reached the remotest corners of the world in one form or another. Somadeva
wrote it for edification of queen Suryamati, the wife of King Ananta (1028-63
AD). Without doubt it is the largest collection of stories in the world,
the number of stanzas alone being more than 22,000. It is twice as big
as the Iliad and Odyssey put together.

The huge mass
of Sanskrit manuscripts found all over the state in recent years, shows
the extent of the scope and variety of Sanskrit texts and studies and their
diffusion among the people.

George Buhler
who toured the state in search of Sanskrit manuscripts in 1875 when Sanskrit
was at its low ebb after the earlier destruction of huge masses of manuscripts
by unscrupulous conquerors and tyrannical rulers, found an incredibly large
number of works on Vedas, Puranas, Mahatmyas, Poetry, Plays, Fables, Poetics,
Grammar, Kusas, Law and Polity, Saiva Philosophy, Astronomy, Astrology,
Vaidya Sastras, etc. The discovery of manuscripts on such varied subjects
left him amazed. "I must premise", he records, "that I do not pretend to
give all that is valuable in them, and I even doubt if any man can sufficiently
become master of all the Sastras represented, in order to estimate the
books at their proper value".

Another feature
of Sanskrit learning in Kashmir was special and exclusive recenssions of
some famous and important classics like the Mahabharata and Kalidasa's
Sakuntala. Similarly with regard to Bhagwadgita many Kashmiri Pandits wrote
commentaries on it. It was in 1930 that Dr. Sherader published a paper
on the Kashmirian recenssion of the Gita which evoked considerable interest
among scholars. The controversy has in the words of Kunhan Raja, "assumed
in the region of Indological studies an importance too big in dimension
to be ignored by any serious student. The problem has come to stay".

Not only did
the Kashmiri Scholars comment upon the classical works like those of Kalidasa,
but they also studied, and wrote commentaries on, important works produced
in Sanskrit in the rest of India. For instance the Yudhishtiravijaya, the
premier 'Kavya' of Vasudev Bhattatiri of distant Kerala was commented upon
by Ramakantha of Kashmir.

No wonder the
learned Pandits of Kashmir and their works were in demand at the courts
of several enlightened princes in India, at important assemblies of thinkers
and writers and at the Sanskrit Universities in the rest of India. And
it was the ambition of every student and lover of Sanskrit language and
literature and Indian philosophy to go to Kashmir to drink deep at the
fountain of knowledge and wisdom that gushed forth from the "Land of Sarada,
the Goddess of Learning".